Merope
Herradura
Prov.9:1-9
Horseshoe1.Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
2.She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
3.She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,
4.Whoso [is] simple, let him turn in hither: [as for] him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
5.Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine [which] I have mingled.
6.Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
7.He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked [man getteth] himself a blot.
8.Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
9.Give [instruction] to a wise [man], and he will be yet wiser: teach a just [man], and he will increase in learning.
Chess: "Kennebunkport" "Herradura "Merope (Pleiades)" "Civilisation" "Mesa Verde" "Golden Gate"
Merope, in Greek mythology, is one of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione (mythology). Pleione, their mother, is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethyus and is the protector of sailors [1]. There are several myths associated with the Pleiades in Greek mythology.
Legends of Merope
In one story, the Pleiades, along with their half sisters the Hyades, were the virgin companions to Artemis [2]. Artemis was the twin of Apollo and daughter of Leto and Zeus. She is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt, wild animals, and fertility [2]. The Pleiades were nymphs, and along with their half sisters, were called Atlantides, Modonodes, or Nysiades and were the caretakers of the infant Bacchus[3]. Orion pursued the Pleiades named Maia, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno, Alcyone, Sterope, and Merope after he fell in love with their beauty and grace. Artemis asked Zeus to protect the Pleiades and in turn, Zeus turned them into stars. Artemis was angry because she no longer could see her companions and had her brother, Apollo, send a giant scorpion to chase and kill Orion. Zeus then turned Orion into a constellation to further pursue the Pleiades in the skies [4].
In another legend, the sisters were transformed by Zeus into stars because Orion fell in love with them and relentlessly persuade their affection for 12 years. At first they were turned into doves, but later, along with Orion, into stars so that forever the hunter Orion would pursue them [1].
In either legend the Pleiades were turned into stars and now, along with their half sister, the Hyades (who died weeping for their dead brother Hyas), make up the star constellation Taurus. Merope is the faintest of the stars because she married a mortal. Her sisters had relations with gods and bore them sons, but Merope married Sisyphus and lived on the island Chios. Merope gave birth to Glaukos, Ornytion, and Sinon. Merope is often called the “lost Pleiad” because she was at first not seen by astronomers or charted like her sisters. One myth says that she hid her face in shame because she had an affair with a mortal man, another says she went to Hades with her husband, Sisyphus [5]
The Pleiades in mythology
In the clear and unpolluted night skies of antiquity the Pleiades star cluster was an object of wonder and interest. It was the subject of myth and legend in almost every culture on the planet.
As the Pleiades cluster is close to the ecliptic (within 4°) in the constellation of Taurus it is a spring and autumnal 'seasonal' object in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Being close to the ecliptic, there are frequent occultations of the cluster with the Moon and planets. To our superstitious ancestors these were, no doubt, portentious events. Likewise, the apparent annual motion of the cluster would have been highly significant. The heliacal (near dawn) rising of the Pleiades in spring in the northern hemisphere has from ancient times augured the opening of the seafaring and farming season: while its dawn autumnal setting marked the season's end.
The Pleiades are among the first stars mentioned in literature, appearing in Chinese annals of about 2350 BC. The earliest European references are somewhat later, in a poem by Hesiod in about 1000 BC and in Homer's Odyssey.
The Bible contains three direct references to the Pleiades in Job 9:9 and 38:31, and Amos 5:8, and a single indirect reference in the New Testament. This latter passage (Revelation 1:16) describes a vision of the coming of the Messiah – who holds, in his right hand, seven stars…
The etymological derivation of the name Pleiades (Πλειαδεσ) is uncertain. Robert Graves, the late English poet and writer, records in his 'The Greek Myths' (1955) that it may be derived from either the Greek 'plein' for 'to sail', or 'pleios' meaning 'many'. Another possible root is from Pindar, an early Greek poet, who named the cluster the Peleiades – 'a flock of Doves' – and this is, perhaps, the original form. A nearby cluster has retained its animalistic classical name of the Hyades, 'the Piglets'.
The 19th century poet Alfred Lord Tennyson probably did not realise how metaphorically close to the truth he was when he described, in his poem Locksley Hall, the rising Pleiades:
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.
Poetic and apt – recent telescope observations have revealed that this most famous of open clusters is comprised of some four hundred stars wreathed in complex nebulæ of dust and gas. [note 1]
The Seven Sisters
In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were seven sisters: Maia, Electra, Alcyone, Taygete, Asterope, Celaeno and Merope. Their parents were Atlas, a Titan who held up the sky, and the oceanid Pleione, the protectress of sailing.
After a chance meeting with the hunter Orion, the Pleiades and their mother became the object of his pursuit. Enamoured with the young women he pursued them over the face of the Earth. In pity for their plight, Zeus changed them into a flock of doves, which he set in the heavens. Thus the olympian added the penalty of the absence of his wife and family to the Titan's original punishment of eternally supporting the heavens from the Earth.
Only six stars are distinctly visible to the naked eye. The ancient Greeks explained the sudden disappearance of the seventh star in various narratives. According to one, all the Pleiades were consorts to gods, with the exception of Merope. She deserted her sisters in shame, having taken a mortal husband, Sisyphus, the King of Corinth. Another explanation for the 'lost' star related to the myth of the Electra, an ancestress of the royal house of Troy. After the destruction of Troy, the grief stricken Electra abandoned her sisters and was transformed into a comet – everafter to be a sign of impending doom.
The Greek legends of the disappearing star are echoed in Jewish [note 2], Hindu and Mongolian folklore: their basis in an actual event seems to be corroborated by astronomical evidence that a clearly visible star in the cluster became extinct towards the end of the second millennium BC.
In an alternative myth, the Pleiades were the virgin companions of Artemis, to the ancient Greeks, the goddess of hunting and the Moon. Whilst stalking a hind, the great hunter Orion crept into a sunlit glade, disturbing the innocent play of the sisters. They fled in alarm. His immoderate passions enflamed by their beauty and grace, he pursued them relentlessly, as was fitting for the greatest mortal hunter. In frustration, Artemis pleaded with Zeus to for his intervention. With characteristic olympian sarcasm, he did. As the hunter closed in on his prey, Zeus transformed the sisters into a flock of doves. They flew into the heavens, beyond the reach of their pursuer, but also removed from earthly companionship with the goddess!
Artemis, enraged by these twofold masculine affronts, revenged herself on Orion. Apollo, her brother, having been affronted by the mortal hunter's prowess, was persuaded to set a monstrous scorpion to attack Orion. Not to be outdone in this, in another characteristic display of mordant wit, Zeus set the dead hunter in the heavens in a vain pursuit of the Pleiades through the night sky for eternity, with the constellation Scorpio ever chasing after Orion. Even so the Olympian had some compassion for his daughter: the path of the Moon in the heavens passes close to the Pleiades, and thus Artemis – as the goddess of the Moon – had the solace of their frequent reunions.
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